Be Sure To Plant Early For Best Success 15 



and the crown level with the surface of the ground. It is also important to see that 

 the ground is pressed firmly around the plant and that enough soil is filled in near the 

 crown so that the top of the roots will not be exposed. 



If you do not use fertilizer under the plants, the rows can be laid off with a marker 

 and the plants set down the marked row. 



HOEING AND CULTIVATING. Begin cultivating and hoeing soon after the 

 plants are set. When first hoeing be sure to uncover the bud of all plants that have 

 been planted too deep. If this is not done these plants will never amount to anything. 



Cultivate and hoe enough to keep the ground from crusting and keep the weeds 

 down, but do not cultivate deep enough to disturb the roots. 



We, and most of our customers use the matted row system and we find this the 

 most profitable method. The first runner plants should be encouraged to take root, 

 this will help the mother plant to produce a large number of runner plants. 



When hoeing be sure to see that the plants do not become too thickly crowded in 

 the bed. There is not much trouble this way except with varieties that are heavy plant 

 makers. Where the rows are 3V2 feet apart we recommend a bed from 15 to 20 inches 

 across, for p-etting a heavy crop of berries, but if the rows are four feet a wider bed 

 will be O. K. 



DISTANCE TO PLAKT. Matted Row. For this system the rows should be from 

 3"^^ to four feet apart with the plants set from 15 to 24 inches in .the row, accord''^ cr 

 to the varieties set. Heavy bedding varieties such as Senator Dunlap, Premi'^r, Dr. 

 Burrill and others should be set farther apart than varieties like Chesapeake, Lupton 

 and other varieties that make very large plants but not so many of them. 



Hill System. If you decide to use this system rows should be 30 inches apart one 

 way and 15 inches the other with the plants set in the check. All runner'^ shoiild b^ 

 kept cut off. Under htis system the berries will be much larger than if grown in the 

 matted row, but labor costs prohibit this system unless space is very limited, 



FERTILIZATION. If you have barnyard manure broadcast after plowing and 

 disced in, this is a fine way to imprvoe your land and insure vou a fine berry patch with 

 lots of fancy fruit, but commercial fertilizer can be used with very satisfactory results. 

 We find 400 pounds of dissolved bone and 100 pounds of acid phosphate per acre used 

 in the drill about a week before the plants are set or along side the plants after setting 

 and thoroughly hoed or cultivated in will give excellent results. Where it is applied 

 broadcast 1,000 pounds of the raixture per acre has proven very satisfacto^--^ but be 

 sure to harrow it in thoroughly before setting the plants. Do not use over 500 pounds 

 in the drill, for too heavy an application of any commercial fertilizer will be very in- 

 jurious to the plants. 



Another application of about 800 pounds per acre as a top dressing late in the 

 summer when the plantbed is almost made or early in the spring before plant growth 

 starts, of a mixture containing 4 per cent to 7 per cent nitrogen and from 5 per cent 

 to 10 per cent phosphoric acid, with little or no potash. 



We believe late summer is the best time for if applied then you will have stronger 

 and more vigorous plants as it takes strong plants to produce large fancy berries. All 

 fertilizer should be brushed off the leaves. 



MATING VARIETIES. There are two sexes of strawberry plants — male and 

 female — listed in this book as perfect and imperfect, (in our price list perfect flower- 

 ing varieties are followed by "Per" and imperfect by "Imp"). The perfect flowering 

 sorts will produce as well by themselves as with the imperfect varieties, but the im- 

 perfect will produce very poorly, if at all, without the perfect varieties. They should 

 be planted four rows of the imperfect flowering varieties and two rows of the perfect 

 flowering varieties, of the same season, and so on across the field, or they may be plant- 

 ed in the same row using one-fourth perfect and three-fourths imperfect. 



REMOVING BLOSSOMS AND MULCHING. All strawberry plants begin to 

 bloom soon after being set in the spring and if the fruit is allowed to ripen the plants 

 will be greatly weakened, therefore all blossoms should be removed. This is very 

 important for it may mean success or failure. On everbearing varieties the blossoms 

 should be removed twice before the berries are allowed to ripen, other than this the 

 everbearers are given the same treatment as the standard varieties. 



Mulching is a wonderful way to protect the plants from freezing and thawing of 

 the soil in winter, to preserve moisture during a dry fruiting season and to keep the 

 berries from being spattered with dirt during a rain. 



Use stra;w, coarse manure or similar material, apply in the fall and in the spring 

 when growth starts rak off the beds into the center of the row; there it also serves 

 the purpose of retarding the growth of weeds. 



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